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nAfter renting a property, we bid farewell to the guild staff member and headed to the marketplace to buy things for our livelihood.

nThe minimum required furniture was already readied in the property, but we have to prepare all other things ourselves. If we are going to use that house just to sleep, things would be simple, but just trying to cook for ourselves would require quite a lot of things.

nWell, I have some surplus in money, so it should work out one way or another.

nAfter a few hours of getting miscellaneous stuff for our living, we returned to our house.

nShadow Storage really is handy at times like this. I can just throw it in, and even decently big stuff can be stored.

nThe beds have already been provided, but there’s no mattress or a futon spread out, so it will be the day after tomorrow that we will be able to begin actually living here.

nThe climate is warm around here, so a towel-ket might be enough to cover ourselves, but whichever the case, we lack way too many things to begin our living here.

nThere’s no big store where everything can be found there, so it takes time.

nOur new place has a lot of rooms.

nWe decide our own rooms from among those, and bring our things in.

nMine was the room at the right after going up the stairs, and Jeanne was the left one.

nI put down my luggage and left the room, and it was right at the time when Jeanne left too.

n“Kuro, do you have Points?” (Jeanne)

nA completely out-of-the-blue question. You could say that’s just like her.

n“Eh? What brought that all of a sudden? I have 0.” (Hikaru)

n“Zero?! You are one reckless guy… Points can serve as a safety measure, so it would be better to leave as much as possible, you know?” (Jeanne)

n“I know, but I had my own circumstances.” (Hikaru)

nBy giving Rifreya the Panacea that cost 3 Points, I have been completely emptied out of Points.

nI also only have enough for 1 Point in terms of Crystals. It is true that in terms of safety margin, it would be dangerous, but all Points I have used until now have been necessary expenses.

nThere should be no problems if I just accumulate them again.

n“I make sure to always leave 6 Points the whole time.” (Jeanne)

n“6 Points?! That’s impressive.” (Hikaru)

nJeanne is always keeping a high number of viewers, so she probably gets a lot more too.

nEven so, leaving 6 Points the whole time is impressive.

n“That’s why it is okay to use them when it goes over 6 Points, but I am thinking about getting a mattress for now.” (Jeanne)

n“Isn’t that okay? I don’t really mind the beds of this world, but the ones that you can bring out with Points are all high quality.” (Hikaru)

nThe mattress at the inn had stuff like straws inside of it and it prickled. It might be something that bothers a girl.

n“Yeah. By the way, the big sized one is also worth the same amount of Points… I can buy it for 1 Point. Kuro, want to sleep together with me?” (Jeanne)

n“Eh? Wa?” (Hikaru)

n“We are going to be room sharing here. I would feel bad monopolizing the good bed. I don’t know how big a queen size is, but it should be enough for two people to sleep, and it would allow us to quickly react in emergencies.” (Jeanne)

nJeanne said this rapidly while looking straight at me.

nEh? Didn’t we decide on our rooms just now?

n“N-No, I will be sleeping on my own.” (Hikaru)

n“Hm? I see… Right. Well, that’s fine too.” (Jeanne)

nJeanne looked away and entered her own room.

nWhat was that just now…?

nWell, anyways, it looks like it is fine to order only my mattress to the artisan.

nAlso, the tools that revolve around water, and I would like a bit more furniture. Personally speaking, I would like a bit more clothes for myself too.

nWe bought the chairs and table, but would it be better to have a sofa too?

nThere’s still 6 more days before the dungeon opens, but taking it as time to prepare for the house would make it just right.

nWe finished setting the things we bought, and at the time when I was about to head out for dinner with Jeanne…

n<>

nThe usual nonchalant voice suddenly said.

nThe total number of isekai otherworlders showing in the Status Board is 700. They are most likely to replenish the numbers. I don’t understand well what God is trying to achieve here.

nJust that, the livelihood of the Chosen have stabilized to a certain degree, so maybe they are simply trying to replenish it with more members because the adventuring is lacking.

n“Muuh…it has come already, huh. It was faster than I thought.” (Jeanne)

n“What do you mean by that?” (Hikaru)

n“There’s a lot of deaths in the Chosen. You also thought that the numbers have been decreasing steadily, right, Kuro? Of course, it might stabilize somewhere, but there’s no doubt we would have been lowered to half in 1 year at this pace. Then, I was sure that God would replenish the numbers sometime.” (Jeanne)

nI see. I did also think that the number of Chosen was lowering pretty fast.

nThough I wasn’t thinking much about replenishing those numbers.

n“…Anyways, it would be better to be careful .The new guys will know how to efficiently manage their Points, and most of all, they would have information about us, right? Especially you and me, we have a lot of viewers. Our fighting style, items we have, and most of all, it is better to think that our weaknesses have been laid completely bare. If they want to live efficiently in this world, they can kill us first and get our items to make their lives easier from there on.” (Jeanne)

n“What are you…no, I see… That might be true.” (Hikaru)

nI have faced the evil of humans to a degree I come to hate.

nIf you kill a Chosen, you can get items and equipment that can’t be obtained without Points. If it is a situation where they can kill us easily, there’s no assurance there’s no people who will target us.

nI don’t know what tools Jeanne has in detail, but a single High Heal Scroll would be enough to drive someone to kill and be rewarded for it.

nThe announcement continues.

n<>

nMessage freezing…

nFor someone like me who doesn’t read the messages at all, this doesn’t affect me at all, but it will have an effect on Jeanne and the other Chosen.

nI don’t think there’s many people who are living in this world while completely cutting themselves away from their original world.

n“Hooh, God really gets it.” (Jeanne)

n“Eh?” (Hikaru)

n“It would be stupid to be controlled by the voices of the original world when they have come to a different world after all… It is weird coming from me who used the messages as the basis for my actions though.” (Jeanne)

n“You were making them the basis of your actions?” (Hikaru)

n“Complete freedom unexpectedly makes it hard to know what to do. I used them as a tutorial of sorts. Now that I have gotten a comrade, I don’t need that anymore.” (Jeanne)

n“I see…” (Hikaru)

nJeanne said that she hasn’t met any other Chosen aside from me.

nAnd with that, she went to villages, listened to their problems, and would solve them as she aimed for a big city.

nNow that she has decided to conquer the dungeon, those tutorial quests are not necessary -that must be what she means.

n<>

nWith that, the announcement ended.

nJeanne was operating the Status Board at once.

n“I can read the existing messages, but it looks like new messages won’t reach. Also, other changes are…I see, hmm… This one’s unpleasant.” (Jeanne)

nJeanne’s face warps slightly as she operates it.

nI also did the same, but was there such a bad change to warrant that reaction?

n“Where? What change?” (Hikaru)

n“The map. You have the high efficiency map, right?” (Jeanne)

n“‘Right?’, you say… Well, I do have it, but only the world map one.” (Hikaru)

n“Check it. You will understand once you check it.” (Jeanne)

nYou can get a high efficiency map with 3 Points. An added function for the Status Board.

nBy choosing the tab, I can show the world map whenever, moreover, it shows my location with a red dot. It also shows the direction, so at the time when I want to go somewhere far, I won’t get lost with this on me.

nMoreover, it shows the danger level of the place I am in, the name of the location in this world, the population density, and even the distance to the next closest city. If you want to live in this world, you could say this is something that you can benefit from getting.

nA new function must have been added. I was thinking that while tapping on it.

n“Hm? What’s this? There’s more blue dots.” (Hikaru)

nThere were many blue points shown in the map. There wasn’t something like that until now.

nThe location I am in is obviously a red point… No, there’s one blue point that’s overlapping with mine.

nThere’s a blue point in a slightly further away location.

n“You can tell, right? The considerate -unnecessary meddling- new function of God. In other words, they have made it possible for other Chosen to know where the other Chosen are without the need to rely on contacting each other.” (Jeanne)

n“W-Why go through the trouble of doing this…?” (Hikaru)

n“Who knows. There’s no way us mortals can understand what a God thinks…is what I want to say, but it must be because of the messages. There must have been quite a lot of people from Earth who used the messages to tell the location of other Chosen. I myself learned of your location from messages after all.” (Jeanne)

nEven at the time when I first met Alex, he saw the messages and judged I was a Chosen. In other words, the messages were used a lot to make other Chosen meet up.

n“I understand the reason for the update, but I feel like this will work against us. There’s almost no other Chosen aside from us around here. It is okay to move somewhere else, but it would be a pain to go that far.” (Jeanne)

n“We will be able to tell that they are coming, so wouldn’t it at least be better for us?” (Hikaru)

n“It is true that it is in part good for us, but isekai otherworlders can bring any weapon, you know? I wouldn’t be able to match a gun. That goes the same for you, right, Kuro?” (Jeanne)

n“True… Especially because I am being hated…” (Hikaru)

nWill the Chosen come to try and kill me?

nThey might. At the very least, I should at least assume they are coming with that intention. In that sense, it is an advantage that I can tell where the Chosen are.

n“If you are hated, then that means I am being hated too.” (Jeanne)

n“There’s no way.” (Hikaru)

n“How can you be so sure? How can you tell when you don’t even open your messages?” (Jeanne)

n“I…was thought of as a killer…as the killer of Nanami…and her parents, you know? It would be nice if Nanami revives and clears up my name, but there’s the chance that Nanami was killed without getting the chance of seeing the killer’s face. If that’s what happened, there’s still no knowing who the culprit is.” (Hikaru)

nEven if Nanami didn’t see the face of the killer, she would still testify for my innocence, but would the public believe her?

nHow much meaning would a testimony with no basis hold?

nThere’s obviously the chance for the complete opposite to also be true. Knowing both the face and name, and giving a proper testimony.

nIn the end, I don’t know what’s happening in the other world.

nWith the messages freezing, getting new information has been cut off.

nWell, my viewers should decrease if they know I am innocent—no, Jeanne is here with me, so the attention I gather would also increase.

nThe viewer numbers might not serve much of a reference.

n“…Kuro, stop continuously thinking about that stuff.” (Jeanne)

n“Eh?” (Hikaru)

n“The freezing of messages is a good opportunity. Forget about that world already.” (Jeanne)

n“Even if you tell me that…” (Hikaru)

nI want to, too.

nI tried to forget countless times.

nOver and over and over and over…

n“…Hey, Kuro, you revived Nanami in the morning, but with the messages freezing, it means that you have no means to confirm whether Nanami has truly revived in good health or if she is living on without any troubles. Right? Even if not, the messages are from people that you don’t even know who wrote it. In other words, you don’t know if it is true or not. Isn’t it stupid to be tossed about by such frail information?” (Jeanne)

n“That…might be true.” (Hikaru)

n“In my opinion, you are way too worried about that world. We have become literal otherworlders, you know. What relation does that world have with you now? Will you become a puppet for God and the viewers in your desire for Points? If you can’t ignore them…how about I help you forget about them?” (Jeanne)

nJeanne closes her distance to the point that we could touch, and she says this.

nShe must be annoyed by how irresolute and pathetic I am, her face is a bit red.

n…It is certainly just as she says.

nI am being way too bothered by it. You could even say my heart is being corroded by it.

nIf I had been told this by a Chosen without that many viewers, it wouldn’t have resonated with me, but Jeanne is being seen by far more viewers the whole time. She might be the only Chosen who has even more unique access viewers than me.

nIn that case, she of course must have received thoughtless messages.

nShe has pushed those aside with iron will.

n“…You are so cool, Jeanne.” (Hikaru)

nThe deep blue eyes of Jeanne were deep and clear as if she could see through my weakness.

nHer white orderly look like that of a doll doesn’t show weakness to the outside.

nBut I still..can’t divide things in such a way.

n“I can’t become as strong as you… I am still a child.” (Hikaru)

n“…It is okay to do this bit by bit. Also, the 2nd group is coming. You must become strong even if you don’t want to… If there really are people who are aiming for our lives, hesitation will cost you your life or ours.” (Jeanne)

nWe won’t know whether the 2nd group will be aiming for me and Jeanne until it actually happens. There’s the chance…that’s all there is to it.

nBut if they really come for us, it would be dangerous to not face it with the intention of killing them.

nI still haven’t been able to properly come to terms with the matters of my original world, but I might really be able to forget everything and move forward if it is together with Jeanne.

n“…Now then, I am thinking of going to sleep, but what will you do? I have already gotten the bed.” (Jeanne)

n“Eh? What about dinner?” (Hikaru)

n“Dinner…you say…?” (Jeanne)

nDidn’t we talk about eating after leaving our luggage?

n“No, you must be tired already. I am not that hungry either, so I will return to the inn for today. I still have a bit of luggage remaining there.” (Hikaru)

n“…N-No, right. I see. Dinner, right? Let’s go for dinner. I completely forgot because of the sudden announcement of God. I am hungry.” (Jeanne)

n“I see? Then, let’s go eat. I have a place I recommend. Can you eat shrimp?” (Hikaru)

n“I love it.” (Jeanne)

nAfter we finished eating, I returned to the inn.

nJeanne seemed to be reluctant to part, but she was always alone in this world, so she might have felt lonely.

nWell, I will be living there from tomorrow on. It is not like I don’t have insecurities about living together, but it should work out somehow. If the situation requires it, we could hire a maid just like Jeanne said.

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